Sunday, November 11, 2012

In Memory: William A. Gladstone

It was just shared today that Civil War author and historian William A. Gladstone passed away on Wednesday November 7th 2012.

He was the author of two books about the United States Colored Troops and shared his passion regarding the history of the US Colored Troops with many. I have often used his book as a quick reference when I need to look up the origin of a USCT regiment.

A list of all regiments of USCTs and where they were organized from Gladstone's book United States Colored Troops

His work has also been useful when I need to know the date and site of a Civil War battle involving USCTs.

Index of Battles provides a useful references.

Gladstone's work is appreciated and he will be missed by many in the community of Civil War historians.

3 comments:

had the pleasure of meeting Bill a few times over the past few years and I would definitely consider him to be one of the "founding fathers" of modern USCT scholarship. He once told me he got interested in the topic by reading The Sable Arm and looking at every single source in Cornish's footnotes. He will be sorely missed.

I've read in "Slavery and the Making of America" by Holt and Holt (book for the PBS series) that colored troops had to fight against whites' prejudice for their right to serve in the nation's armies, starting even with the Revolutionary War. Liv @claimingkin just posted a 40-minute movie from 1944, "The Negro Soldier," which seems to have helped counter some degrading stereotypes. Historians are so important. They keep us from "rewriting" history under our current political pressures.